In his vision for the year 2030, Irish author Kevin Barry turns his hometown via limerick. His piece paints a picture of a post-human society, which incorporates not only elements of a dystopia after Orwell or Huxley, but also touches on motifs of his debut novel »City of Bohane«. In Barry’s »beautiful new world«, even people’s feelings are controlled by the state. What is left is the longing for what has been lost.

Helon Habila’s narrations, taking place in the impoverished area Ajegunle, the biggest slum in Lagos, focus on the longing to climb the social ladder, as professional football seems to promise him. With this theme the Nigerian author touches on a central problem of the future, as already more than a billion people are living in such so-called informal sectors today. Prognoses expect this number to double by 2030 and even triple by 2050. This means that already in the course of the next generation every third person on earth will live in a slum. Are we steering ourselves into a post-humanist society? How can cities deal with this process of converting to slums? The authors will discuss these questions together with the urban sociologist Martina Löw and Zeynep Aygen.